A multilateral currency union removes intraregional exchange rates but not the union rate. The pre-union intraregional exchange rate variability is thus latent; a two-step procedure is developed to measure this. The measured variables are used to model inflation and intraregional trade growth of individual union members. Counterfactual simulations of the union impact are carried out using the resulting models. Application to ASEAN+3 shows that the intraregional variability mainly consists of short-run exchange rate shocks, that the variability significantly affects inflation and intraregional trade of major ASEAN+3 members, and that a union would reduce inflation and promote trade regionwide.

This study focuses on the effect of disclosure processing frictions in labor markets. We go back in time 30 years ago and examine whether firms facing strong organized labor strategically responded to the implementation of the Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval (EDGAR) system, which substantially reduced labor unions’ information processing costs. Consistent with firms having incentives to maintain an information advantage over unions for bargaining purposes, we find that they reduce financial statement disaggregation, the likelihood and frequency of management forecasts, and the proportion of good news forecasts. Our study is the first to investigate the implications of information processing costs for labor markets and suggests that an SEC mandate intended to reduce disclosure processing costs for investors caused unintended strategic responses by firms facing proprietary cost of disclosures in other markets. Data Availability: Data are available from sources identified in the text.